How to Overcome Phone Anxiety – A Step-by-Step Tutorial to Reduce and Manage Phone Anxiety

You may feel like everyone knows the phone rules when you don’t. Like you never got the handbook or missed out some innate skill or instinct. Maybe you haven’t learned phone skills yet which triggers your anxiety, or maybe your anxiety keeps you from getting enough practice. Or maybe you’ve mastered phone skills, but your anxiety flares up for other reasons. Regardless of your reasons, it doesn’t change the fact that talking on the phone often goes hand in hand with at least some degree of anxiety. The good news is that you can learn to manage or overcome phone anxiety and fear of phone calls.

Even without anxiety, phones are a challenge to our human nature. We are required to be part of a real-time interaction while getting less input about the other person’s reactions. Talking to a disembodied voice with no way to judge body language or facial expressions doesn’t come naturally. Many phone calls are underwhelming. People stutter, misspeak, interrupt, mishear and pretend they didn’t. It’s a wonder that everyone’s goal when on the phone isn’t to get off the phone as soon as possible, right?

Signs of Phone Anxiety<

When dealing with phone calls, do you…

…delay or avoid phone calls whenever possible?

…worry about bothering the other person?

…worry about what to say?

…worry about forgetting what to say?

…worry about what the other person will think of you?

…worry about embarrassing yourself?

…worry about freezing up or falling apart?

…shake, sweat, stutter, feel dizzy or nauseous, or have a racing heart?

…pick apart the conversation afterward?

…beat yourself up for your imperfections afterward?

In this day and age, it’s simple to avoid many phone calls by using email, texting, and social media, but unfortunately, you can’t use those for everything. Worry and anxiety can make it difficult to call the plumber, or your kid’s school, or to schedule or cancel an appointment. For now, the phone is not yet obsolete. And overcoming your phone anxiety will require using the blasted thing.

Changing Your Self-Talk with Coping Statements

How are you talking to yourself when dealing with phone calls? Do you tell yourself that the other person will be annoyed, bothered, judgmental, or rude? Do you feel like you need to apologize for wasting their time with your concern, for interrupting their life, for existing? Listen to me now – You deserve to be heard, and there is nothing you can do to control their reaction.

Remind yourself of the advantages of phone calls

Nobody can see if I blush, sweat, shake, or bite my nails.

Nobody can see if I make eye contact or not.

Nobody can see what I look like or smell my fear.

I will get or convey the information I need.

I will be able to cross this all off my to-do list.

Remind yourself that you are human

No human is perfect. Nobody expects me to be perfect.

Everyone has had awkward phone calls.

Nobody else has a rulebook either.

Phone calls are weird and uncomfortable for many people.

Remind yourself you can’t control others

They have chosen to be on the phone with me.

They didn’t have to call me or answer my call.

If they sound impatient, that’s their issue, not mine.

They have a lot more going on in their life than a phone call with me.

This phone call is a tiny part of their day.

Remind yourself that your mind isn’t always your friend

Feelings aren’t facts and thoughts aren’t truths.

I won’t believe everything I think.

If the other person picks apart the conversation later, they will be judging themselves and not me.

Coping Skills for Phone Calls

There are also other skills and strategies you can use to manage or reduce your anxiety while on the phone. Add to this list with ideas you think may work best for you, and try them all to see what works in reality.

Pet a cat or dog, if possible, or use a worry stone or hold a comfort object.

Breathe deeply and slowly.

Do some power poses before and/or during the call.

Have notes handy with the information you want to reference.

Ask someone you trust to be with you.

Watch and correct your self-talk as needed.

Congratulate yourself for every accomplishment.

Reward yourself for making a difficult phone call.

Mastering Phone Skills & Reducing Anxiety with Gradual Exposure

Using the phone comfortably isn’t an instinct; it’s a skill that anyone can learn and few ever perfect. Maybe you know you have good phone skills and your anxiety is unrelated, or maybe you grew up hearing others use the phone comfortably so you know how it sounds. Or maybe you’ve had little exposure at all to phone skills. No matter where you’re starting, building and practicing phone skills is a big part of managing phone anxiety, and working up to the harder phone calls gradually is a wise approach. Combined with changing your self-talk and using other coping skills, you will decrease your phone anxiety over time.

Answering a Phone Call

To reduce anxiety around answering phone calls, make your phone ring. You get to keep it within your control for this step, and eventually, you should feel less anxiety at the mere sound of a ringing phone.

Next, send calls to yourself on a cell phone or landline from Comedy Calls and answer them. (Avoid the pranks section; they will not be good for anxiety.)

Keep doing these until your anxiety is at a manageable level when you hear the phone ring.

Next, if possible, recruit a trusted friend or family member to call you at a planned time. Let the phone ring for two to three full rings before answering, and use that time to breathe slowly and deeply.

Lastly, get ready to answer your phone the next time it rings unplanned. Commit to doing this; the practice is a necessary part of healing this anxiety. When the phone rings, let it ring two or three times while you take slow, deep breaths and use some healthy self-talk and coping strategies. Then answer the phone and see what happens. If at any point, you need a moment to collect yourself, say “Wait, hang on a sec, please” and take a few deep breaths before returning to the call.

If you find you have less anxiety making a phone call than answering one, it is usually fine to let the call go unanswered, but commit to calling them back within five minutes. Avoidance feeds anxiety, so don’t let yourself fall into that unproductive trap.

Making a Phone Call

If your anxiety is high, first start by calling to listen to movie listings, a closed business’s voicemail, or an automated system. Or for some variety, call some fun hotlines (in the US/Canada). Do these a lot!

Hogwarts Admissions Office: 605-475-6961

Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”: 248-434-5508

Hall & Oates Song Menu 719-266-2837

Hotline Miami Recording: 786-519-3708

(Please note: These numbers were valid as of 3/22/17, and yes, I have Hogwarts, Rick Astley, and Hall & Oates saved as contacts in my phone.)

Next, call a local store to ask their hours. Use a script with phrases that feel most natural to you. “I’d like to know what hours you’re open, please.” “Um, yeah, how late are you open?” “Hey, what time do you open tomorrow?” “Okay, thanks.” *click*

Now, get ready to make a bigger call. Plan a time to make the call. Stick to it. You can schedule or cancel an appointment, call to ask about services a business provides, or call your insurance company to see if you qualify for any additional discounts. It’s your choice and you are in control.

Before you call, write a script or bullet points to remind you what you need to say or ask, and to note any dates, numbers, or other facts you may need to provide. It is also good to have a short script or reminders if you need to leave a voicemail. Check that you are using the self-talk and coping strategies that you’ve learned work the best for you, and make the call. You can do this! (Note: remember pauses are a natural part of conversation and usually don’t last as long as you think you do.)

If you find that you continue to pick apart conversations or beat yourself up for not being perfect on the phone, keep using your healthy self-talk and practice forgiving yourself before your next practice call. You deserve it.

A Unique Solution

I know of a pair of adult sisters who both struggle with phone anxiety and they came up with an interesting strategy to help each other during the most difficult times. When a challenging phone call needed to be made (like calling about a defaulted loan, or setting up a scary medical appointment), they’d do a 3-way call and call the person together. Sometimes they would identify everyone on the line, but there were times when they used their similar voices and practiced timing to seamlessly jump in for the other without letting on they were two different people. These two have found a unique way to help each other out, and you can be creative with your solutions, too.

Your Solution

Even if you don’t have a voice-twin with intuitive timing, you can still work out skills and strategies to manage your own phone anxiety, and the more you practice, the easier it will get. You may always have some level of anxiety on the phone, but as long as the phone anxiety doesn’t prevent you from doing what you need to do or want to do, then you’ve got a good handle on it.

You have the knowledge and skills now to manage or overcome phone anxiety and fear of phone calls. Give yourself a pat on the back and practice some self-care as a reward. You’ve earned it!

Comment below with your thoughts and experiences related to phone anxiety and fear of phone calls. Are there any tips that worked for you that aren’t included here? Please share!

Wow.. this is wake up call for me definitely! I did not realise I have phone anxiety issues all this time and the fact that you offer these exercises to overcome them will help me a lot. Thank you so much for this.

This is very interesting as I now realise that I probably do suffer a bit from this as well without even knowing it before. I do get anxious when I have to make some important phone calls and often want to avoid it as much as possible. I think it is because it requires quick reactions as I don’t know what the other person will say. I have learned to be prepared by writing down all the things that I have to say in case I get nervous and forget.

Thanks for sharing this post. I have a few friends who don’t like to answer calls but they are using messaging instead of calling (which is something everybody is doing these days). I also try to video call them and they find it better this way. Their fear is more because they don’t know for sure who is on the other line so video calling works for them.

Great article. Unfortunately I think that phone anxiety will increase with Gen Z generation. I already see this happening with my (Millennial) generation due to heavy use of instant messaging.

I do think that the best way to overcome phone anxiety is through exposure. Get a job or volunteer at some organization where you need to make phone calls several times a say on a regular basis.

Working at a call center might be brutal sometimes as I found some people to be mean and take their anger out of you for no reason, but then you end up getting thicker skin and not be bothered by it later.

I do think that writing things down in bullet point form beforehand also helps a lot so that way I’m sure I addressed everything I needed to say.

Hi, very interesting post to read. I’ve grown up using the phone and never had any issues throughout the years until recently. Now, I don’t know why, I’ve developed a bit of phone anxiety. I have no problems with answering calls but when I have to make one I worry I’ll forget what to say or get tongue tied so, before the call, I practice what I will say and write it down so I don’t forget to cover any important points, then I make the call.

What a great detailed review of phone anxiety, and strategies to beat it! I liked the idea of desensitizing yourself to the sound of the phone ringing, and then taking “trial runs” at unimportant calls – like calling businesses to ask their hours. These small steps could make a huge difference for when you have to be on important phone calls.

I also liked your reminders to people that we are still somewhat “invisible” on the phone, and so we don’t have to worry about things like body language or what we’re wearing. That was helpful~!

Do you have any advice for someone whose phone anxiety is based in mishearing or failing to understand people over the phone?

A good deal of my own anxiety comes from past experiences where I had difficulty making out what someone was saying, even after several repetitions, due to the lack of visual feedback and poor sound quality on the phone. There’s only so many times you can ask someone to repeat themselves before *both* parties start getting annoyed at the situation.

There have also been calls where I heard something completely different to what the other person actually said, and didn’t realize it until much later. This makes even simple calls like asking for a business’ hours anxiety-inducing, because I’m never sure that I heard the response correctly (and it feels silly/awkward to ask things like “sorry, did you say ‘five’, as in the number after four?” to confirm).

Cody – If you’ve had your hearing checked and it’s normal, then I’d recommend working on accepting some of those awkward feelings, not giving attention to thoughts telling you it’s silly to ask for clarification, and if you feel it’s needed, you can also cushion the requests with a disclaimer: “Maybe it’s bad reception, but I’m having trouble hearing you so I may need to ask for clarification from time to time.”

Oh My! I thought I just hate phones! Did not know until now that it’s phone anxiety I go through lol I tend to worry more about these two ‘delaying or avoiding phone calls whenever possible’..it happens A LOT. And I worry too much about bothering the other person. I prefer to text most of the time.

Thanks for sharing this information and reminding me that It’s okay, I am human. Will definitely try out the exercises.